Methods: One hundred and twenty five bovine permanent inferior incisors were divided into 5 groups: group I (10% polyacrylic acid/ moistened with saliva/ FOLC), group II (37% phosphoric acid/ moistened with saliva/ FOLC), group III (without acid etching/ moistened with saliva/ FOLC), group IV (10% polyacrylic acid/ not moistened with saliva/ FOLC) and group V (37% phosphoric acid/ dry/ Transbond XT), used as a control. After the bonding procedures all samples were termocycled, tested in a shear mode on a testing machine and the ARI was evaluated.
Results: ANOVA and Tukey's HSD tests indicated that group V yielded the highest shear bond strength (4,09 MPa), with no statistically significant difference from group II (3,88 MPa) and there were no statistic differences between groups I, III and IV (2,84 MPa; 2,90 MPa and 3,22 MPa, respectively) (p≥ 0,05). Groups where enamel was etched presented in more than 50% of the samples all cement material adhered to the teeth surfaces, opposing group III where the bond failure was mostly between enamel interface and bonding material.
Conclusions: The results indicated that in a saliva moistened environment, FOLC can be used and a higher shear bond strength achieved with the etching of the enamel with a 37% phosphoric acid, with no statistically significant difference from Transbond XT. Conditioning the enamel with 10% polyacrylic acid or not conditioning it resulted in inferior shear bond strength values.